Note: Marsi Wadworth was a tremendous athlete at Great Falls High, winning multiple All-State honors in softball and basketball on stellar Bison teams. After earning a softball scholarship to the University of North Dakota, her life took a strange turn thanks to an unusual summer job. Eventually she returned to her hometown, serving as an assistant softball coach at both the University of Great Falls and C.M. Russell High. Now married to Chris Helgeson and the mother of three young boys, Brody, 8, Blake, 7, and Beckett, 1, Marsi is a teacher at Sacajawea Elementary School. We caught up with her this week for our Sunday Conversation.

Q: It was about 20 years when you played on some great Bison softball teams, Marsi. Remember?

A: Oh my gosh. It was that long ago?

Q: What year did you graduate from Great Falls High?

A: 1999.

Q: You know, this year’s Bison softball team has had such a great season it reminds me of the teams you played on. You were such a great pitcher. And I especially recall your junior season 20 years ago when Amy Quigley emerged as a star pitcher, too. She couldn’t speak or hear, but it was not a disability for her at all in softball. Remember? Wasn’t that something?

A: It was. Amy and I had a good little relationship and it was actually pretty fun. She was an amazing pitcher. She could be wild at times, but she threw hard and people didn’t want to dig in there too much against her. When she was pitching and I was playing first base I would give her signals. She was deaf, so you don’t hear the ball and you don’t hear people calling for it. It was amazing what she could do. We had some sign language going on between us, and it was so cool.

Marsi (Wadsworth) Helgeson was a standout softball and basketball player at GFH.(Photo: Submitted by Marsi Hegelson)

Q: Is Amy still in Great Falls?

A: She is, and it’s really cool. She married Eric Oakland, who was a wrestler in high school, and her kids wrestle. And so do mine. Her daughter doesn’t play softball, but she’s a stud little wrestler. And my boys all wrestle. And play baseball, too. Now my oldest has decided he wants to pitch. So we were over at the ball field and all these memories were coming back. He was pitching to me and I was trying to help him. It’s kind of fun.

Q: Your high school career was fantastic. I’m sure you have great memories.

A: What I remember the most are all the road trips and all of us girls having so much fun. We were a super close-knit group of girls.

Q: Who were some of your buddies?

A: The Ehnes sisters, Terilee and Joey, Alana Nardinger, Jessie Moats, Erin Peterson, Jackie Suden. There was a bunch of them. And we were so close, because we had grown up and played together since we were itty-bitty.

Q: In those days, Marsi, we really had great softball teams at both Great Falls High and CMR.

A: We did. Amazing teams on both sides of the river. Now as I’ve gotten older, and of course I coached over at CMR with Lindsey (Gustafson), I’ve gotten to know a lot of those girls I used to play against. Lindsey and I, we were rivals all growing up and then we went to college and were rivals (Marsi at UND and Lindsey at North Dakota State). Then we came back and coached together. Everybody now, even though we were on opposite sides of the river, have come back to town and are good friends now. It’s fun. Tiffany Van Heel hit that big home run off me in the state tournament (rallying CMR to victory) and now I see her and we give each other hugs. (laughs) It’s just cool.

Marsi (Wadsworth) Helgeson was a standout softball and basketball player at GFH.(Photo: Submitted by Marsi Hegelson)

Q: The bottom line is you love Great Falls and so do your friends, isn’t that right?

A: Yes. This is a great town. Everybody comes together and I think we’re a sports town, no matter what the sport is. It’s fun for me. I just hope, regardless if it’s Great Falls High or CMR, I just want one of our teams to win state. Because I’m so proud we’re from a place like this, you know what I mean?

Q: I certainly do know what you mean, Marsi. I’ve been here 32 years and this is a great place to call home. I understand you’re teaching now at Sacajawea Elementary.

A: I do. I’m teaching third grade and will be going up to fifth grade next year. My kids go there as well.

Q: That’s a great school. It’s a ways from where you grew up though, isn’t it? I live over by Roosevelt. Did you grow up on this side of town?

A: I did. We lived right on Central and I actually went to Roosevelt School. Now I’m on the other side of the river, and that was kind of weird to get used to. But now it’s just fine.

Q: You were also a fantastic basketball player for the Bison, but I’m wondering how you got to be such a tremendous softball pitcher. Did your Dad (Fred) have anything to do with that?

A: Yep, it definitely was my Dad. I have a picture of when I was 5 or 6 years old, and I’m in a pink leotard in the back yard and I’m playing catch with my Dad. (laughs) He spent so many hours with me. He was a contractor and had to work so many hours, gosh, and he’d still come home after doing all that physical labor and work with me. Basketball and softball. He was my coach in everything when I was little.

Q: Is Fred and your mother (Gayle) doing well? Still in Great Falls?

A: Yes. They’re retired. Dad gets to come to all the grandkids’ games. And Mom, too. She’s a retired teacher. Plus she gets to babysit and keeps busy picking up of grandkids from schools and watching their sports. And it’s really funny, Scott, the other day we went to one of my son’s baseball games and I was yelling a little bit and Dad said to me, ‘Geez Marsi, you need to relax.’ And I thought, well that’s real funny that you say that (laughs). Now you can be a Grandpa and sit back and relax. It’s funny how that how goes. When I was playing Dad was so intense and now he’s just so laid-back (laughs).

Q: That’s great, Marsi.

A: Yes, it is.

Q: Is your father a big baseball fan? Is that why he wanted to help you in softball so much?

A: My Dad was actually a good wrestler. He won a state championship his senior year at like 93 pounds or something at Central. When the school was at Paris Gibson. So he thinks it’s real fun that my boys are into wrestling.

Q: That’s neat. You have a sister, too, isn’t that right?

A: Yes. Heather (now Swanson) is six years older than I am. I think she was a sophomore when Terry Albrecht started the Bison program at Great Falls High. She was also a pitcher, and her kids are a little older. One is in college and will be a pilot.

Q: Tell me the story of your softball career ending at North Dakota State, Marsi.

A: I played two years, and then I actually was a nanny back east for Tommy Hilfiger, the clothing designer.

Q: You’re kidding.

A: No. (laughs) So with all the plane rides and traveling I did while working with them, I was able to take my niece on trips with me. She became friends with the little girl that I nannied, because they were about the same age. Well, we have no pilots in our family, but because of that whole experience she is now becoming a pilot. She just got her commercial license last week from Kansas State.

Q: Wow.

A: It’s cool.

Q: Tell me how you met Mr. Hilfiger.

A: I was living in North Dakota and playing softball. Living in a house with six girls and loved my life. It was great. But after my redshirt freshman year I decided I didn’t want to come back to Great Falls in the summer. I wanted to do something different. I love kids, and a girl I knew had a friend who worked at a nanny agency. I thought, cool, but I knew nothing of any celebrity or anything. It was completely random. And anyway, the lady who owned the agency came to North Dakota and interviewed a bunch of people. She called me two weeks later and said she wanted to offer me the job, but I had to give a year commitment.

Q: Oh man. What about softball?

A: Right. At that time I was on a softball scholarship, living with six girls and loving my life. I didn’t want to leave, I just wanted a summer job (laughs). And she told me it was Tommy Hilfiger. And I was like, ‘What? What are you talking about?’ It was a shocking thing. I actually told her I wasn’t sure (laughs). You know, I didn’t want to lose a scholarship. But then I thought it was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. So I went out there.

Q: Was it New York City?

A: Greenwich, Connecticut. It’s in the New York area.

Q: And you worked for Mr. Hilfiger how long?

A: Seven years.

Q: So that was the end of your softball career, right?

A: Yes, that was the end of my softball career. Yep.

Q: Well tell me a little bit about it. Was he nice to you?

A: Oh, he was fantastic. He’s one of nine kids and made it totally on his own. He knows what it’s like to be poor and on the other side of things. To this day he’s the greatest guy, so kind. His daughter (Kathleen) still comes out to visit me once in a while. We traveled all over. He really couldn’t have treated me better.

Q: Did you ever regret giving up your college career?

A: Nope, not a bit. The experience I had was so great.

Q: What did your folks think of that?

A: I called my parents and talked to my Dad. And I asked him what he would do. And my Dad, No. 1 sports fan, said ‘You know what, Marsi. I’d go for it.’ It was just really cool. People ask me why I ever quit after seven years? But I was ready to come back home.

Q: After being away so long this was still home, right? That’s why you wanted to come back to Great Falls?

A: Yes. I wanted to have a family and I knew I wasn’t going to raise kids in that area. I’m a Montana girl and I love the outdoors and all the small-town sports. So at 26 I moved back here, and actually met my husband three months later on my 27th birthday.

Q: That’s really fantastic, Marsi.

A: Thank you.

Q: You had gotten your bachelor’s degree back at Connecticut, right?

A: Right. Then I was a grad assistant (at University of Great Falls) with Gary (Ehnes, first head coach of the Lady Argos softball program). My first degree was in Human Services and here at UGF I got my teaching degree.

Q: And helped coach Ehnes?

A: Yes, for a couple of years. And then I helped Lindsey at CMR for six years.

Q: When you were a nanny were you also doing a little coaching?

A: Gosh no. There was no time for that. No time for sports. (laughs)

Q: So Mr. Hilfiger’s kids are not athletes, I take it?

A: They’re more into the arts. They’re extremely artistic.

Q: So Marsi, do you still get nice discounts on Hilfiger stuff?

A: (laughs) When I worked out there I got great discounts.

Q: Let’s talk softball a little bit, Marsi. The Bison are entering the state tournament undefeated. I know Lindsey’s Rustlers are in the tourney too, but I’ve got to believe I know who you’re rooting for deep down this weekend ...

A: (laughs a long time) Well, you know, I really and truly … I don’t know. It’s hard for me, because I coached at CMR for so long and I’m such good friends with Lindsey and those guys, and I played for the Bison (laughs). I will say this: I want a Great Falls team to come out the champions. Then I will be a happy girl. I wouldn’t put anything past Lindsey and her coaching staff and those girls. That’s one thing I know about the CMR girls: they have heart. And I can tell you one thing about the Great Falls High girls. They’re always amazing hitters. Mike Coleman and all of his guys (including Don Meierhoff) are great hitting coaches and really great coaches all-around. So it will be an interesting one. And like you know, anything can happen at a state tournament. I just hope a Great Falls team comes out of it winning it. No matter which one, I’ll be happy.

Q: This Bison have a great pitcher. Erin Hocker is a real good one.

A: She really is. And they have amazing hitters, too. The nice thing about both teams is they have experience at the state tournament. That’s a positive, I think, for both of them.

Q: Who was your favorite coach growing up?

A: Oh my gosh. You can’t ask me that (laughs). I played for Terry Albrecht and Gary Ehnes, Jerry Olson and Roger Spring in softball … My Dad, obviously, is who taught me the game and how to be mentally strong. But I have to say that all of the coaches I had growing up I just loved. They were all so kind and put so much effort into it. And coach (Chris) Napierala, I love that guy. They all taught me a lot. Roger Hatler was my basketball coach. But my Dad was the one who really taught me to start with. Truly though, I never had a bad coach. And that just doesn’t happen. It was pretty amazing, actually.

Q: Well, 20 years ago I sure remember that great Bison softball team that included you and the Ehneses and Amy Quigley. Remember how the Great Falls High fans used to raise their arms and wiggle their fingers to cheer for Amy?

A: Yes, and putting the Ks up. I remember they had signs with K’s on them. They were putting those K’s up.

Q: She could throw.

A: She sure did. Harder than I did. Or even Lindsey. But she was a little wild (laughs). And I always said, you know what, it’s kind of good to be a little wild. Because then they don’t dig in on you (laughs). That was a weapon. Amy would be pitching harder and harder and then there was a wild one and you’d go ‘Holy cow.’ She had a ton of speed. And it’s so fun, because I get to see her a lot these days.

Q: It sounds like life is still really good for you, Marsi.

A: It is. Thank you, Scott. Sports are so amazing. But it’s fun to be a mom and on the other side of it now. And my husband is a coach for all the kids.

Q: It’s fun to visit with you again. All the best to you and your family.

A: I really appreciate it, Scott.

Scott Mansch’s Sunday Conversations appear here frequently. He can be reached at 791-1481 or smansch@greatfallstribune.com